Twins Game Recap (9/7): Odorizzi, Garver Power the Twins to Victory

The Twins offense cracked open in Saturday night’s 5-3 victory. Mitch Garver drove in four runs, including the game-winning three-run shot in the seventh inning.The win increased Minnesota’s AL Central lead to 6.5 games.

Garver scored the lone run off Cleveland starter Aaron Civale on a solo shot in the first inning. Garver’s 27th homer set the record for the most in a season by a Twins catcher. Earl Battey hit 26 in 1963.

Jake Odorizzi threw 5 1/3 innings of two-run ball, falling one short of his career high with 10 strikeouts. The start held more weight, as Michael Pineda was handed a 60-game suspension today for violating the league’s drug policy. Pineda had been the most reliable Twins starter since the break, posting a 3.04 ERA and striking out 9.4 batters per nine innings.

The Twins bullpen has been one of the best in the last month. Tyler Duffey continued his success, holding Cleveland to just one run on a wild pitch. Duffey struck out two in his relief of Odorizzi. With Sam Dyson uncertain to return, the Twins are exploring other options out of the pen. Zack Littell allowed one hit in a scoreless seventh inning. Sergio Romo limped off the mound after setting up in the eighth.

Taylor Rogers was great again, retiring the side in order to secure the win and his 25th save.

The win was important for Minnesota. Avoiding the potential sweep with Indians ace Mike Clevinger on the mound tomorrow, the Twins are more than treading water to win the division.

Postgame With Baldelli

Bullpen Usage SpreadsheetClick here for a review of the number of pitches thrown by each member of the bullpen over the past five days.

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26 Comments

Eddie Rosario's plate appearance with the bases loaded kills me. He was pitched 6 "Balls" and managed to make an out after Civale practically walked the bases loaded. If he would have walked in a run we would have been into their bullpen right then. Lucky for us Mitch Garver bailed us out tonight.
Eddie's approach and plate discipline I think sometimes prevents him from being a great hitter instead of the good hitter that he is.

I agree Eddie swings at too many pitches off the plate, but to be fair the home plate umpire didn't seem to much care where the pitches were thrown. His strike zone could be charitably described as erratic.

Eddie Rosario's plate appearance with the bases loaded kills me. He was pitched 6 "Balls" and managed to make an out after Civale practically walked the bases loaded. If he would have walked in a run we would have been into their bullpen right then. Lucky for us Mitch Garver bailed us out tonight. Eddie's approach and plate discipline I think sometimes prevents him from being a great hitter instead of the good hitter that he is.

Schoop is worse throughout the season though. I know Schoop hit a triple and drove in an important run. He also hit a ball four into DP. I want Schoop off the post season roster, I want Garver or Kepler takes over 1B when facing RH pitcher and Cron stays on the bench more, I want Rosario hits 6th or 7th in the lineup NOT 4th.

Huge win. Takes the pressure off the team big time. Now Cleveland needs help to catch the Twins. Garver saved the day. What an amazing season he is having! Solid pitching by Odorizzi and pen. Just as I suspected would happen, Puig is becoming a distraction in the Cleveland clubhouse. Serves them right.

Eddie Rosario's plate appearance with the bases loaded kills me. He was pitched 6 "Balls" and managed to make an out after Civale practically walked the bases loaded. If he would have walked in a run we would have been into their bullpen right then. Lucky for us Mitch Garver bailed us out tonight. Eddie's approach and plate discipline I think sometimes prevents him from being a great hitter instead of the good hitter that he is.

Maybe I'm just being salty about his plate appearances tonight, but I wouldn't even consider Rosie a good hitter right now. His average has stayed okay, but his plate discipline has fallen off a cliff since the Break. I'm really hoping we slide him down in the order until he can prove that he can put good at-bats together again.

I agree Eddie swings at too many pitches off the plate, but to be fair the home plate umpire didn't seem to much care where the pitches were thrown. His strike zone could be charitably described as erratic.

You're right, Diaz had a bad night behind the plate, HOWEVER..when the opposing pitcher absolutely cannot find the strike zone, and walks the previous hitters, you HAVE to at least take 1 strike.

Yesterday was Saturday, September 7. It was the 142nd game of the year putting the Twins 88% of the way through the season. The Twins hit 2 home runs upping their MLB record-breaking season total to 274 home runs.

You're right, Diaz had a bad night behind the plate, HOWEVER..when the opposing pitcher absolutely cannot find the strike zone, and walks the previous hitters, you HAVE to at least take 1 strike.

Per Gleeman, Eddie is swinging at 58% of pitches out of the strike zone the last month. That is insane. He was in the 20 percentile in April, that is not a good drop. Every month has gotten worse. Rocco has been decent about moving people around in the line up. Time for Rocco to move our free swinger down a spot or two, as Eddie is a proud guy, may decide to not swing at everything.

thanks to Rowson for making the hitting approach changes, Rocco for being the first in the org to truly believe in Garver's full potential, and especially to Garver himself, Garver has to be the MVP or co-MVP. He's transforming himself into the heart and soul of the team, offensively and in handling the pitching corps.

A catcher who frequently, and justifiably, hits in the #1, and last night, the #2 spot? I can't help but feel that under the previous manager and staff, he'd still be just another catcher fighting for ABs with the other guy who got the big contract. And now, the reality is, Garver's season at the plate in terms of team impact and overall statistical production currently eclipses all of Mauer's years except for his AL MVP year. (Mauer had a wRC+ of 170 in 2009, Garver's wRC+ is now around 160).

Garver's batting slash with RISP: .339/.397/.732/(1.129)

Cruz's batting slash with RISP: .355/.466/.559/(1.025)

Garver is the best in baseball in HR frequency. His HR/AB ratio is 1/9.75. By comparison, Trout's ratio is 10.444.

Of course, his hitting splits differential are limiting him from becoming a true superstar.

As Garver approaches his age 29 season, the Twins must me mindful of Garver's prodigious bat potential and consider how Buster Posey, Carlos Santana and Joe Mauer made transitions away from full-time catching duties. They need to do whatever it takes to insure that this is not just Garver's "career year" outlier. And Garver should take some off-season lessons from Max Kepler, and focus on improving his production against same-handed pitching. Perhaps he could slip into a more limited part-time catching/part-time DH or 1B role after Cruz/Cron are gone and help Garver productively extend his carer into his mid-30s.

Nice win last night. Wish Odorizzi could have finished off the 6th; it's a little frustrating how often he seems to hit a wall in that inning no matter how well he's been rolling, but he did the job last night.

I can't hate on Rosario too much for his AB; he took what should have been ball 4, but Diaz had a really inconsistent strike zone and I think everyone knew it. Makes it hard to ask a hitter to keep taking pitches, and you still want guys to go up to the plate looking for a pitch to drive.

Twins are weirdly bad with the bases loaded this season. It's the flukiest stat of the whole season that a team hitting this well, with so much power, is doing so poorly with the bases loaded. Sure, we have a bunch of guys who K a lot, but this is a total outlier.

It would be really nice to get a series win today and bury Cleveland, but getting last night's win was the really important one. Making sure to avoid the sweep is massive and really puts the pressure back on Cleveland. Hopefully this calms down all the people who freaked out after Pineda's suspension was announced and started declaring the twins season over and that there was no way they'd even win the division...(talk about overreaction!)

Eddie Rosario's plate appearance with the bases loaded kills me. He was pitched 6 "Balls" and managed to make an out after Civale practically walked the bases loaded. If he would have walked in a run we would have been into their bullpen right then. Lucky for us Mitch Garver bailed us out tonight. Eddie's approach and plate discipline I think sometimes prevents him from being a great hitter instead of the good hitter that he is.

This was the kind of thing discussed in the thread about Rosario posted last week.

As much as I have liked Eddie (I would take him over Buxton any day), he has things to work on and he provided. This is the kind of at bat that should give him very low marks in plate discipline. If the coaches are worth their salt they must address this kind of thing.

I can't hate on Rosario too much for his AB; he took what should have been ball 4, but Diaz had a really inconsistent strike zone and I think everyone knew it. Makes it hard to ask a hitter to keep taking pitches, and you still want guys to go up to the plate looking for a pitch to drive.

According to Umpire Auditor, Laz Diaz is literally the worst umpire in the major leagues, the only umpire getting less that 89% of the called balls and strikes correct:

I agree Eddie swings at too many pitches off the plate, but to be fair the home plate umpire didn't seem to much care where the pitches were thrown. His strike zone could be charitably described as erratic.

the umpire had nothing to do with Rosario's bases loaded AB. Rosario was up 2-0, then (as he is want to do) took a wild hack at what would have been ball 3, down and in. Ball 3 ensued, then Rosario popped out weakly to left on a pitch high and away.

I sometimes feel like the better count Rosario finds himself in, the MORE likely he is to swing at the next pitch, regardless location.

I think hitters should absolutely look to do damage on 2-0, 3-1 counts, but only on pitches that can be damaged.

When that game ended, I said "that's the nail in the coffin."Now two more good whacks with the hammer and the nail will be set and the coffin will be permanently closed.With today's game counting as two in the magic number game, those two whacks could come today.